The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), referring to the rural development and land reform minister requesting an investigation into the lack of protection for South Africans with insecure land rights.

KwaZulu-Natal DA leader, Zwakele Mncwango said the African National Congress (ANC) has failed to implement Section 25(6) of the Constitution, leaving the approximately 18-million people living on communal land without legal tenure.

"It is deeply disturbing that the ANC and [the Economic Freedom Fighters] EFF are using the land hearings that are currently taking place across the country to continue to lie to South Africans about land ownership," Mncwango said.

The public hearings form part of national public participation to get the views of all stakeholders about the necessity for expropriating land without compensation.

Mncwango said the DA believed that it was not the Constitution that failed the people, but the ANC that failed the people.

"The ANC-led government has failed to protect South African’s land rights and now they are using the prospect of expropriation without compensation to hide their failures."

Mncwango said the DA will not allow the Constitution to be use as a scapegoat and blamed for the decades-long failures of land reform programmes.